As described in German Pat. No. 830,286 assigned to The Singer Manufacturing Company and filed with a claim to a U.S. priority date of Nov. 14, 1947, a buttonhole machine that makes double-chain stitch button holes of different lengths has a pivotal needle guide and a pivotal goods gripper that move synchronously. Such a machine is used with a device that holds the end of the severed needle thread between sewing operations, so that this thread end is not pulled back out of the needle.
This thread-cutting and -holding device is mounted on the presser foot and serves to cut the needle thread near the workpiece at the end of a stitching operation and to hold the free end until the start of the next stitching operation. This end is left hanging out, however, so that not only is it unsightly, but it creates a possibility of raveling.
Another buttonhole machine is known having a thread clip that is secured on the blade that cuts the buttonhole. The free end of the needle thread is held by this device until the start of the following stitching operation. Such an arrangement is only usable on buttonholing systems where the actual buttonhole is cut after the right and left hand sides of the buttonhole and the tack stitching at each end are complete, and in this arrangement also once the needle thread is released by the clip it is left dangling.